Effective Time Management 101

Some Effective Time Management examples from my real life include

LAUNDRY
Doing laundry while I'm doing other things. I may put a load in before taking the grandkids to the daycare in the morning. By the time I get home they are finished and I just pop them in the dryer (the clothes, not the kids). When finished I go ahead and take 10 minutes --tops--and put them up. This may be repeated a couple of times during the day--say--while I'm cooking dinner.

The end result is no laundry mounds, no kids having no clothes to wear, and whatever I want to wear is always clean. I know a couple of people who spend THEIR WHOLE SATURDAYS doing laundry. WHY? I can't imagine. You'd just have to go ahead and shoot me.

RECHARGING
I keep reading materials with me at all times. I love to catch up on my reading during soccer practice, doctor appointments, or whenever. Just yesterday I went to pick up my daughter, Harmony, from the Boys and Girls Club and she was in the middle of guitar practice. She asked if I could come back in about 45 minutes--BUT, since I had reading material with me I saved gas (not going home) and precious time that I got to spend on what I wanted. Now how cool was that! Since I already had dinner completed, I got to grab some ME time. For someone else it may be an audio-program, just relaxing to music, or just taking time to think.

How does this fit into managing time? Well, we all need to recharge, right? Why not take advantage of any little time we have available. Those little breaks can be SO rejuvenating. And they CAN add up. Think of traffic, or being early somewhere, or having to wait on someone. So many people would have gotten aggravated. Oh, no not me. I get like a kid in a candy store and pick what I feel like doing right then.

MEALS
Make a note on Sunday what your week looks like. I know Harm has Soccer practice on Monday and Friday nights, Jr. Deputies on Tuesday nights, and Church on Wednesday nights. I also know I have to pick up Corn Pops and Oatmeal (2 grandchildren) from the daycare and deliver them to their mom for a couple of hours (she works at night, sleeps during the day, and lays back down for a nap for ~1 hour again before work). OK, so that means normally I'll cook something big like a 2 roasts on Sunday complete with, like, 5 lbs of carrots and some potatoes too. Those roasts will last a couple of days (don't forget Pot pie) and then I'll make a big pot of spaghetti. We'll have spaghetti and beef-a-roni, maybe lasagna and any remainder will go into the freezer for future use (think over chicken in the crockpot in a couple of weeks).

DISHWASHER/SHOWERING (Don't ask me how those 2 got together)
4. Oh, I could go on and on. Like running the dishwasher at night so those last cups and plates make their way in.

Or showering at night and letting my hair dry while I'm finishing up my last hour on the computer. That does 2 things. Gets something out of the way that I need to do anyway, and I don't have to waste time blow-drying my hair (which I HATE to do). I just let it dry naturally. In the morning I can straighten and go or pony tail it and go.

Essentially it boils down to this: Figure out what you need to do and then find (or make) pockets of time to fit those to-do's into.. These pockets may only be 10-15 minutes--but hey--that may be all you need (like to put chicken in the crockpot and save loads of time later).

There is one tool for Effective Time Management that takes all of this into account (since I am in charge of putting what I need to do and for how long) is found here. Check it out--It is SO COOL.

Scroll down to where it says "See it in action" and watch the video.

It's probably the best 9 minutes and 27 seconds you'll spend all week.

Effective Time Management would have sure helped this mom out.

Sound familiar? I hope not too much.

Lisa gets her kids, Tommy and Joe, (9 & 7) up in the morning for school.

The kids are searching for clothes in the many stacks that are on the floor.

Joe picks up a sock and realizes that, Oh, gee, some of the dirty clothes got mixed in with the clean ones.

He sniffs and, no worries, they had time to air out overnight.

Lisa shakes her head and heads upstairs to find some.

Meanwhile, the boys will have to eat breakfast at home since they are now late.

After deciding to ignore the dirty socks issue (since she can't find clean ones) Lisa heads downstairs to fix breakfast.

Of couse, the dishwasher wasn't run last night so before they can even have some cereal Lisa has to wash bowls.

Finally making it out to the car to go to school, Lisa realizes that she'll have to stop and get gas (or walk).

And all this trouble before school even started.

Something has to change.

AND QUICK!

Lisa needs some Effective Time Management tools.

Effective Time Management would have made the above situation much, much, much (did I say much) different.

I know because this is more like it at my house.

I'll just substitute the situations--not change the details.

Lisa gets the boys up for school.

Each boy knows where his clothes are as they were chosen last night and put on their dresser.

Yep, the boys chose what they wanted to wear from among CLEAN CLOTHES IN THEIR DRAWERS, right down to the socks with the skulls on them (yes, I know, they are a little young for skulls but, hey, I'm not Lisa).

Since they are not running late the boys get to eat at school with their friends (but if the DID have to eat at home there WERE clean dishes).

Lisa gets in the car and after starting it up pats herself on the back for having taken the time to fill up the gas on the way home from soccer practice last night. Since it's cold and stormy this morning she's really glad not to have to get out in it.

Lisa didn't get this way by herself. She had help.

When Lisa realized that there was a better way out there she made an effort to learn more.

What she found was that by taking small progressive steps, handling things in very small, manageable chunks, and getting plenty of reinforcement she made a complete change in the life of her family almost immediately.

Once she saw how easy life was with Effective Time Management she never looked back.

The principles were so simple they worked for the whole family including Dad (at work) and the boys (with their chores).